‘Our parents are as precious as pandas’
THE author of a book on filial piety titled Declining Years has been painting murals of pandas around the country to spread the message of loving one’s parents.
They depict cute mama, papa, kiddie and baby pandas holding hands and having fun.
After painting more than 200 pandas in 42 places nationwide, the author, his wife and a team of voluntary artists – the Super Panda Team – visited Kedah and created another 10 panda murals for the pupils at SJK(C) Long Chuan to enjoy.
Three years ago, author-publisher Edmund Lee Gan Kiat said he and his wife Tee Fern Nie saw an elderly woman shuffling along with a walking stick near a bank that was under renovation.
“The old woman panicked because she thought the bank was closing down. We explained the renovation to her and she calmed down.”
When she told them why she was at the bank, their hearts broke.
She needed to withdraw RM1,800 that her children sent her to pay for her room in the old folks home.
None of her six grown-up children wanted her to stay with them.
Lee, 41, said they then drove her back to the home and saw that her tiny room had “about as much space as a car”.
And so the inspiration for the 165-page book containing 18 stories on the lives of aged people, written in Chinese, was born.
“I chose pandas to symbolise old people because our parents are as important and precious as pandas.
“We visit old folks homes at least once a month and I give Declining Years awareness talks at schools in Kuala Lumpur, Klang and even Langkawi and Sarawak,” he said.
Long Chuan school board chairman Tan Eng Kiang said he hoped Lee and the “Super Panda Team” would paint their murals in other schools.
School headmaster Kua Saw Lian said the murals carried touching messages of filial piety.
“They will instil good values in our students to care and love their parents,” she said, adding that the school will obtain copies of Declining Years for the children.
We visit old folks homes at least once a month and I give awareness talks at schools.
Lee Gan Kiat